Prison Gang Reports

MS-13: Prison Gang Profile

MS 13 were formed in the early 1980s in Los Angeles. After fleeing
the death squads in civil-war-plagued El Salvador, and later settling
in California, a number of Salvadoran immigrants banded together
and formed MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, as a self-defence mechanism
against rival Mexican gangs. The organization has about 30,000 members,
8,000 - 10,000 of which exist in the US. It is currently the largest
gang in many states, including Northern Virginia, and according
to user sources is the largest gang in North America, spreading
to other nations in the east.

The Associated Press has reported that the gang has indulged
in beheadings and grenade attacks in Central America, as well as
machete attacks in cities along the East Coast in the United States.

Some corrections officials say that MS-13 markets the gang as a
way to embrace Latin American heritage, encouraging youth to show
pride towards their culture when it is really just a mask over the
gang's real criminal objectives. According to the LA Times,
Gang members pay guards to smuggle in cellphones, which members
use to consult and communicate with other members in Guatemala,
Honduras and the US

MS 13 is considered by some as a highly organized paramilitary
group, with many members formerly belonging to Salvadoran guerrilla
forces. However, FBI spokespersons have alleged that the gang is
more like a "loosely structured street gang," and not
a highly sophisticated criminal enterprise. MS-13 members operating
on Long Island have been reported by law enforcement to fluidly
share information with fellow members in Washington, D.C. and northern
Virginia. Gang officials have stated that MS-13 is "difficult
to track because [members] like to move around," and are "always
on the go" (New York Post 1 June 2003).

As a street gang, MS-13 operates in over 30 US states, as well
as several countries across Central America, especially El Salvador,
Guatemala City and Honduras. Mexico has had particularly challenging
problems with MS-13, conducting large-scale raids on the organization
in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Aguascalientes.

MS 13 spread to Northern Virginia in the 1990s, attracted to the
region's already exploding Salvardoran population, and later in
the Maryland suburbs of Langley Park and Gaithersburg. There are
approximately 1,500 in Northern Virginia as of 2005. They have set
up shop in Texas, Maryland, and Massachusetts, sometimes luring
migrant workers into the web of criminal enterprise.

Several other locations in which MS-13 have been conclusively reported
on the street are listed below:

At least 60% of MS-13 gang members in the El Salvador's prison
system, approximately 1,800 and more than all other gangs combined,
are either US deportees or members fleeing criminal prosecution.
Ciudad Barrios has become a safe haven for members to avoid rival
violence at other, less secure prisons in the country. According
to the FBI, Ciudad Barrios is like a "college" for the
MS 13, displaying the cultural pride of the gang through inmate-crafted
emblems, clothing, murals, and graffiti. .

MS-13 members are notorious for using deportation to their advantage.
According to the (Robert Lopez, Rich Connell and Chris Kraul, 2005, The Los Angeles Times), prisons in El Salvador
are the "nerve centers" for MS-13, harbouring deported
leaders from Los Angeles who communicate with their fellow branches
across the United States.

Over 700 MS-13 members were arrested by law enforcement task forces
in 2005 alone, and many of these will likely spend significant prison
terms before they are eventually deported back to their homeland.
However, criticism has been leveled at the deportation policies
of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency, which has been viewed as simply using tax payers'
money to fund short visits between MS-13 members and their family
abroad before they eventually return to the United States illegally.
As the Times state, "Deportations have helped create
an 'unending chain' of gang members moving between the U.S. and
Central America," creating a kind of "merry-go-round"
pattern of criminal activity between the two continents (30 Oct 2005 Los Angeles Times).

Conflicts have been reported between MS 13 and other gangs.

In the early days of their existence, MS 13 was once rivals
with La 18, a mostly Mexican variation of the "maras"
gangs that appeared in Los Angeles in the 1980s. In the early
1990s, La 18 showed up in El Salvador, then in Honduras and Guatemala,
and to a slightly lesser extent in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

SWP-18 (Salvadorans with Pride), is another major rival,
and a fatal target for many avid MS-13 prospects seeking initiation
into the gang.

Rivalry has been reported between MS-13 and the 42nd Street
Little Criminals in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A small rivalry has been reported between the US West Coast
gang, Panocho-18 and MS-13, which made local headlines
in Chelsea, just outside of Boston, in 2001, where a 13 year-old
boy was stabbed and left paralyzed by MS-13 members.